Department of Public and International Affairs
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This collection contains research from members of the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University.
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Item The Origins of the Vietnam War(Cambridge University Press, 1980) Katz, Mark N.Item On The Significance of V.M. Kulish(Springer New York, 1983) Katz, Mark N.Item The Soviet-Cuban Connection(Center For Strategic and International Studies, 1983) Katz, Mark N.Item Sanaa the Soviets(1984) Katz, Mark N.Item Soviet Policy in the Gulf States(1985) Katz, Mark N.Item Anti-Soviet Insurgencies - Growing Trend or Passing Phase?(1986) Katz, Mark N.Item The Soviet Union and the Third World(1986) Katz, Mark N.Since the 1960's, the third world has become one of the major arenas of Soviet-American rivalry. The Soviet Union has had important successes in the third world-especially during the 1970's-but it has also had significant failures and even now experiences serious problems.Item Civil Conflict in South Vemen(1986) Katz, Mark N.In January 1986, fighting erupted in South Yemen (also known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen- PDRY) between two factions of the ruling Marxist leadership. Both of the factions were strongly pro-Soviet, and the group that won said it would pursue the same policies as the group it ousted. What the issues were in the struggle appeared quite confusing, and during the ten or so days when the fighting was at its heaviest, it was unclear what was happening. Reports that the leaders of each side had been killed alternated in quick succession with reports that the leaders of each were alive and were victorious. By the time the fighting ended, the top leaders of one faction had all been killed, but that faction prevailed nevertheless. At first glance, what happened in Aden, South Yemen's capital, might not seem especially interesting: no matter which pro-Soviet faction defeated the other, the USSR would retain its influence in South Yemen. But skepticism greets the protestations of the new leaders that they will follow the same policies as their predecessors, since the new leaders are associated with a policy that the ousted leader, 'Ali Nasir Muhammad al-Hassani, had ended namely, the exportation of revolution to South Yemen's neighbors. Hence, predictions as to the probable behavior of the new leadership and their Soviet allies toward the rest of the region are fraught with considerable uncertainty. This article will examine the background of the crisis; the crisisItem Soviet Military Policy Toward the Third World(Center For Strategic and International Studies, 1986) Katz, Mark N.To examine the adjustment of the Gorbachev regime toward the Third World, the International Research Council of CSIS, headed by Quarterly Editor Walter Laqueur, convened a meeting on the issue. Presented as a roundtable, the views of some commentators provide a glimmer of what lies in store in the coming years for Soviet foreign policy in the Third World. As regularly as clockwork, a new Soviet leadership goes through a process of reevaluation toward the Third World. Over the horizon, but constantly on their agenda, the less-developed regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America beckon the Soviets into geopolitical hazards and opportunities to score against the West.Item Soviet Policy in the Middle East(1988) Katz, Mark N.Item Evolving Soviet Perceptions of U.S. Strategy(Center For Strategic and International Studies, 1989) Katz, Mark N.Commentators lament the absence of grand strategy in the foreign policies of the United States. Indeed, the real need for a more strategic vision in U.S. policy provided the original impetus to the founding of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 1962. The need is far easier to identify than to meet, and much of what passes for strategic thinking is a disappointing rehash of ideology or budget rationale. The essays that follow shed new light on the character of U.S. strategy and the choices confronting Americans today.Item Can The Superpowers Plot Peace?(1990) Katz, Mark N.Item The decline of Soviet power(1990) Katz, Mark N.What would be the future of international relations if Soviet power and influence suffered a serious and prolonged decline? Would such a development lead to conflict or would it lead to a new peaceful era in international relations?Item Why Does the Cold War Continue in the Third World?(Elsevier, 1990) Katz, Mark N.Item Beyond the Reagan Doctrine - Reassessing U.S. Policy Toward Regional Conflicts(Center For Strategic and International Studies, 1991) Katz, Mark N.The crisis in the Persian Gulf region has brought into sharp focus the transformation of problems of regional security in the post-cold war era and the special promise of international consensus in an era not divided by East-West discord. Yet it also has demonstrated the continued and growing problem of North-South and South-South conflict, especially with the proliferation of advanced military capabilities. The Following essays assess different aspects of the regional security challenge.Item Superpower Conflict Resolution - Lessons for the Future(SAGE Publications, 1991) Katz, Mark N.Despite the significant progress that the United States and the USSR have made in cooperating to resolve regional conflicts, many of these conflicts continue. One reason for this is that the Soviet and American governments have had differing expectations regarding what the outcome of superpower conflict resolution efforts should be. Yet even when Soviet and American aims are similar, there are other obstacles to conflict resolution. Among these are the lack of commitment to democracy on the part of one or more of the local antagonists in regional conflicts, and involvement by other external parties in the conflicts. There is no guarantee that the superpowers can successfully resolve regional conflicts even if they adopt a common approach to conflict resolution, but adopting a common approach may at least allow Washington and Moscow to unlink their overall relations from those conflicts that cannot be resolved.Item Analysing the Changing Foreign and Domestic Politics of the Former USSR(Elsevier, 1992) Katz, Mark N.For the past few years, history seems to have been switched from "normal" speed to "Fast forward." Vast transformations have been occurring in what once appeared to be immutable aspects of Soviet foreign and domestic politics as well as in international relations generally. Nor have these transformations necessarily come to an end. Others may yet be in store. How should questions about the foreign and domestic politics of the former Soviet Union be analysed during this period of rapid change? The question is an important one since the methodology or approach scholars employ can in large measure determine the answers to the questions they ask. I will argue here that traditional Sovietology, or an analysis of domestic and foreign policy issues from the perspective of Russian and Soviet history, is not the most fruitful method for studying a situation in which rapid change is occurring. A more productive approach, in my view, is what will be called here comparative historical analysis - an approach which seeks to relate questions regarding the foreign and domestic politics of the former USSR to similar situations which have occurred elsewhere. No claim is being made that this method will yield definitive answers. What it can do, though, is bring to light a range of answers or possibilities that traditional Sovietology, by examining questions solely in terms of the Russian/Soviet historical experience, does not. In this paper, I will first examine traditional Sovietology and consider why it is no longer as useful a methodology as it once was. I will then outline comparative historical analysis and discuss why it might be a more appropriate methodology for analysing the current situation. Finally, I will discuss two examples of the very different results which different methodologies might yield when applied to the same question.Item Yemeni Unity and Saudi Security(Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 1992) Katz, Mark N.Item The Legacy of Empire in International Relations(Taylor and Francis, 1993) Katz, Mark N.In the aftermath of the cold war, not only have many nationalist disputes persisted, but many more have erupted, especially in and around the former Soviet Union. Is this nationalist conflict a temporary phenomenon that is likely to disappear, or is it a deep-seated problem that will persist and possibly grow worse? The working hypothesis that this study will examine is that, aside from continued fighting, there are only three alternative outcomes to ethnic conflict occurring within nations: (1) the development of peaceful, multiethnic societies within existing nations, in which ethnic distinctions become unimportant; (2) mainJenance of the status quo by force, in which dissatisfied groups are unable to achieve their goals; and (3) the breakdown of existing nations and the proliferation of small, more ethnically homogenous states. This study will argue that unless governments can bring ahout the first outcome (development of a peaceful multiethnic society), it will be extremely difficult in the post-cold war era for them to achieve the second outcome (maintenance of the status quo by force). Achieving the first outcome will also be difficult; although many regimes have the stated goal of building a society in which ethnic distinctions become unimportant, they act to preserve exist in patterns of ethnic dominance. The third outcome (the proliferation of small, ethnically homogenous states is often regarded as the most difficult to achieve, but it may be the most likely outcome if larger nations cannot be held together on either a voluntary or involuntary basis.Item Mechanisms of Russian-American Conflict Resolution(Springer New York, 1993) Katz, Mark N.